The world of television has been thrown into uncharted territory due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with countless networks having to shift their programming schedules after stopping production entirely in March. The CW has been particularly affected by this, with several of the network’s original series having to air abridged seasons. Riverdale, the network’s beloved Archie Comics-inspired series, was the latest to wrap up its season earlier than planned, but it looks like there was a positive to that. According to recently-released ratings for Wednesday night, Riverdale was the only program to actually see an uptick in viewers. The series earned a 0.2 in the adults 18-49 demographic and 683,000 viewers, which was the series’ best ratings in eight months.
The abridged season finale, which was called “Chapter Seventy-Six: Killing Mr. Honey”, saw Riverdale‘s teens uniting over their mutual hatred of their principal, Mr. Honey (Kerr Smith). Without getting into spoilers, the episode ended things on a sort of surprising cliffhanger, which will apparently pick back up in an unexpected way once Season 5 is able to be made a reality.
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“It’s funny, we had shot almost two-thirds of episode 20, which was going to be our prom episode,” showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa recently told Entertainment Weekly. “And we looked at that footage and tried to see if there was a way we could cobble together that episode. We actually had shot the prom, where a lot of very dramatic things happen, but we still hadn’t shot some big character moments between Archie and Veronica and Betty and Jughead. So we kind of just couldn’t do that.”
“However, when I saw the cut of 19, what’s great about it is all of the kids are in one big story together united against Mr Honey. And it does end on a pretty shocking, disturbing cliffhanger,” Aguirre-Sacasa continued. “So, it sort of was like, “Oh wait a minute, this could be a great season finale” and then prom would be a great season premiere next year. So it worked out in kind of the best way possible given everything. Obviously we would have loved to have finished the full season, and the last three episodes are fantastic. But to me, this one is fun. It’s a special conceit and it brings everyone together, which I think people love.”
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